Since 2003, Mali is the third-largest producer of gold in Africa. Industrial gold mining has led to much hope for Mali’s economic development : the increase in state revenue should have had a positive impact on social expenditures in the areas of education, health, etc. Moreover, the establishment of a mining industry was expected to bring improvements in the situation of local communities.

Caribbean governments have alleged that the European Union is trying to prevent them from signing trade deals with other poor countries on their own terms. The EU's executive, the European Commission, is hoping to secure a series of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with 76 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries by the end of this year.

When soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army join a United Nations peacekeeping unit in Sudan, early October, they will mark Beijing’s new diplomatic assertiveness. They will also signify a departure from a posture of refusing to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

Heavy rainy season downpours have left areas of eastern Chad flooded and have seriously hampered efforts by UNHCR and other aid agencies to help tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians. The rains have eased over the past week, but flooding continues to cut land access to the Koukou Angarana region in the south-east, and has forced locals and displaced people in the area to head for higher ground.

In many southern countries, monoculture tree plantations are advancing rapidly, causing serious negative impacts on local communities as well as on the environment. In the year 2004, following an initiative of the Brazilian Network against the Green Desert, an organisation with a long track record of resistance to tree plantations, 21 September - national tree day - was chosen as a significant date to commemorate internationally the struggle against monoculture tree plantations.

Episcopal bishops were tight-lipped on Thursday about meetings with the Archbishop of Canterbury aimed at healing a rift in their Church over the ordaining of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions. Gay issues are threatening to tear their Worldwide Anglican Communion apart. But there were no reports of progress at the start of a conference in New Orleans of US bishops and delegates from overseas Anglican churches.

Chinese relations with Africa have grown exponentially over the past decade, writes Lucy Corkin. During the 1990s, Sino-African trade grew by 700 per cent, and many high-level visits have occurred since 1995. Increased political activity has paved the way for the entry of Chinese companies of all sectors into Africa's economies.

The capacity of large corporations and business associations to shape patterns of social development and government policy in developing countries has increased significantly in recent decades. This is largely the result of pressures exerted through capital flows; global supply chains; lobbying; the participation of non-state actors in consultation and decision-making processes associated with standard-setting and public policy; the internationalisation of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda; and public-private partnerships (PPP). The open conference, held in Geneva from November 12-13, 2007, will be composed of 26 presentations by scholars and researchers from both the North and the South.

The launch of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative’s (CHRI) 2007 Report to the Commonwealth Heads of Government, ‘Stamping Out Rights: The impact of anti-terrorism laws on policing’, focuses on the need for police and legislative reform in the Commonwealth in an age of terrorism. Due for release at CHRI’s twentieth anniversary conference in London, on 14 September 2007, the report highlights disturbing trends in counter-terrorism laws passed, and the resulting police abuses, on the basis of the preservation of national security.

This paper by Jonathan Holslag evaluates the extent to which China adapted its Africa policy to external criticism and expectations. It is found that policy modifications mainly occurred when long-term interests were at risk, with regard to issues of limited importance and non-binding initiatives. The article departs from the vast literature on adaptation and tests this concept on several aspects of China’s engagement in Africa

The influx of Chinese citizens, goods and money to Africa has been greeted with a lot of consternation and suspicion in most African countries. Cameroon has not been an exception. This article is based on a recent survey conducted in 10 Cameroonian cities concerning the flow of Chinese citizens and their goods into this peaceful West African country and the implication of this state of affairs on the country’s economy and the living standards of her people.

This World Development Movement podcast features George Monbiot, writer, broadcaster and academic, talking about the history of direct action – particularly relevant given the recent coverage of the climate change protestors near Heathrow this summer.

The United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery allocates small project grants, for programmes of humanitarian legal and financial assistance to individuals whose human rights have been severely violated as a result of contemporary forms of slavery. Application forms should be duly completed and submitted by 31 December 2007 to the secretariat of the Fund.

With global diversity increasingly at risk, a mechanism like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is required, argues Michel Loreau. Biodiversity has received increasing attention from scientists, governments and the public since the 'Earth Summit' at Rio de Janeiro and the establishment of the international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992. There are local conservation successes to celebrate as a result, but global threats to biodiversity are still on the rise.

To benefit from genetic resources, developing countries need to improve their governance, a meeting in Beijing was told this week. Developing countries are losing out because their laws do not specify which resources should be paid for and how, said Gurdial Singh Nijar, a law professor at the University of Malaya in Malaysia. He made his remarks at an international workshop on genetic resources and indigenous knowledge, supported by the UN Convention of Biological Diversity.

Africa’s courtship with China, a captivating dance between the elephant and the dragon, has intriguing implications for all concerned and the world at large, assetrs PT Zeleza. It is marked by, on the one hand, the grand political theatre of elaborate presidential tours and lavish summits, with their lofty declarations of equal partnership between the distant peoples of these two ancient lands, by all those dramatic and diplomatic displays of statehood beloved of postcolonial or postrevolutionary societies enchanted by their sovereignty.

The Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford) invites applications from the global South to fill two places in its Civil Society Practitioners Programme. This visitor programme is intended for Civil Society Practitioners of distinction or outstanding promise who wish to visit the Institute for a period of six weeks between February and December 2008, to undertake research concerning the social impact of the Internet and related ICTs.The deadline for applications is September 26 2007.

Robert Mugabe is to lose vital support from one of his few remaining allies on the world stage, China. One of the Zimbabwe president's oldest diplomatic friends, China told Lord Malloch Brown, the Foreign Office minister, that it was dropping all assistance except humanitarian aid according to a report in the Telegraph. The move follows a decision by China, a permanent member of the United Nations security council, to work more closely with the international community in bringing pressure to bear on "rogue regimes".

The impact of the AIDS denial movement — which refuses to accept that HIV is the cause of AIDS — is a ripe area for research because of its potentially lethal consequences, argue Tara C. Smith and Steven P. Novella in this PLoS Medicine article. Many doctors and researchers are unaware of the existence of organised denial groups or ignore them as an inconsequential fringe, they say.

Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could change the nature of grasslands and decrease their usefulness as grazing pastures, say researchers. The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week (27 August).